The 1980s pop song “Moonlight Shadow” is typically associated with Mike Oldfield, and on sampler and other anthology CDs it is normally attributed to him. Yet, Oldfield was the songwriter who wrote it; the singer is, in fact, Maggie Reilly. Now it is not at all unusual that the singer and songwriter for a particular piece differ; in fact, I guess most modern singers don’t write their own songs. But in such cases, the song is normally attributed to the singer, and people care little about the writer behind it. What is so peculiar about this one case that “Moonlight Shadow” is different in this respect?
because more than likely Mike Oldfield a very gifted multi-instrumentalist not only wrote that song the probably played the majority of the instruments on the song, don’t get me wrong Maggie Reilly hits the voice of an angel.gel.
I see this a lot with electronic/synth artists who sometimes have to bring in a vocalist. Vincent De Moor, Robert Miles, DJ Sammy, Chicane. The singer isn’t considered the “main” performer; she may have just been brought in for that one song. Occasionally they get credited with a “with” or “featuring”.
Oldfield is also associated with Tubular Bells, even though the only vocals are by Vivian Stanshall. But alted315 nails it – both works are almost all Oldfield.
Mike Oldfield gets a “Vocals” credit on Tubular Bells for the growling, screaming noises.
Vivian Stanshall gets a credit for his spoken role as “Master of Ceremonies” introducing the instruments.
Without debating the merits of Oldfield’s vocalisations he’s the only credited singer on the original Tubular Bells.
TCMF-2L
I’m not sure I’ve ever even heard this song (I don’t think it was a big hit in the US), but according to Wikipedia it was released as a single under Mike Oldfield’s name and also appeared on his album Crises. So he apparently wasn’t hired to write this song for Maggie Reilly, but instead she was hired to do vocals on a song where he would be credited as the main artist.
The people who create “Hits of the '80s” compilations presumably cannot legally, and likely would not have any reason to want to, screw around with who the credited artist is. If “Moonlight Shadow” was released as a Mike Oldfield song then that’s what they’re going to say on the compilation too.
Why just “modern singers?” Throughout the history of pop music, songwriting and recording were traditionally done by people specializing separately in those roles. The Beatles model was a deviation that still holds sway to some extent among a sector of artists, but it was never the general rule.
Another one from the 80s that always confused me: “Never Gonna Let You Go” credited to Sergio Mendes but the vocals were done by Joe Pizzulo and Leza Miller (I know - who?) Obviously Sergio Mendes was the more familiar name and it was a track from his album but it seemed odd that the vocalists were only sometimes credited. For a long time I assumed Mendes was the male vocalist and the female was just ignored for some reason.